‘Harvest from hell’ means knowing your falling number critical

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Manitoba Co-operator – The ‘harvest from hell’ has resulted in one of the worst years in recent memory for sprout damage.

That’s pushed down falling numbers and — since grain buyers have different approaches to handling this issue — increased the need for farmers to know the falling numbers for their wheat.

But if you want to take advance of the Canadian Grain Commission’s annual harvest sample program, you need to register for the program before the end of November. The commission has extended the deadline for submitting samples to Dec. 31 — but for farmers who are registered with the program as Nov. 30.

“Talk to your buyer sooner than later so you know what their requirements are so you can plan accordingly,” said Pam de Rocquigny, general manager of the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association. “If you do have high-quality wheat make sure you know what the quality is so you can extract as much from the marketplace as you can because there is high-quality wheat out there.”

An official with a major grain company agrees.

“We have a process in place to try and manage the flow from the farmer to end-use customer,” said John Peterson, vice-president of wheat merchandising and hedging at James Richardson International Ltd.

Both de Rocquigny and Doug Chorney, the grain commission’s assistant chief commissioner, are urging farmers to take good representative samples before getting their wheat falling number tested.

The normal error is plus or minus 30 seconds, said Chorney.

“You can have a wheat that is in the 280 (second) range,” he said. “You could test that representative sample again and it could be anything from 250 to 310. That’s a big difference when the cut-off is 300 for some companies, 320 or whatever.”

Both also warn blending to try and improve falling number is complicated.

“One or two kernels can have an impact on the test,” de Rocquigny warned. “It’s not a straightforward process. We’re still encouraging producers to try not to blend it themselves and keep your high-quality wheat binned separately from lower-quality wheat.”

Richardson International is doing a falling number test on all wheat before buying it this year, Peterson said.

“Then we work with the farmer to manage the stocks,” he said. “We also have a minimum falling number in our contract.”

– Allan Dawson is a reporter for the Manitoba Co-operator.

Read the full article at the Manitoba Co-operator.